18/10/26
What Remains
The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
23 September 2026 – 28 February 2027
For the academic year of 1985-86, the artist-in-residence post, offered as part of a Cambridge-wide residency scheme, organised in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard, was offered to the American feminist conceptual artist, Mary Kelly (b1941, Iowa). Despite the scheme having run since 1977, Kelly was the first woman to hold the post, which offered a studio space, room and board in a college, a stipend of £9,500, free access to the university’s academic resources, such a lectures and libraries, and an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard. Initially, Kelly was told by an Arts Council officer that she should not see her husband and child even on weekends as this would prove too great a distraction from her work. Thankfully, however, Hilary Gresty, the curator at Kettle’s Yard, intervened, and New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), upholding its status as a site of feminist academe, different from the other colleges and academic environments in Cambridge at the time, provided Kelly with a three-bedroom flat.
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
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